LOUISIANA DIOCESAN CONVENTION PASSES RESOLUTION ON GUN VIOLENCE

2013 Resolution R-2 AS PASSED

From: The Rev’d John H. Craft, Chaplain, Chapel of the Holy Comforter, and The Rev’d William H. Terry, Rector, St. Anna’s Church

Purpose: To Advocate for the Reduction of Gun Violence in America

Resolved, that the 176th Convention of the Diocese of Louisiana in response to the recent deaths from gun violence, including the loss of 28 of God’s children in Newtown, Connecticut, and escalating urban violence resulting in over 2,000 gun-related deaths since 2007 in Louisiana alone, commends and joins with other faith communities in an emerging moral consensus and with a prophetic voice by calling upon lawmakers at the federal, state, and local levels to take the following steps:

(1) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support and adoption of state and federal firearms legislation to promote safety, education and responsibility in the purchase, possession, and use of firearms and ammunition.

(2) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support and adoption of tighter controls, including background checks,on all gun sales and purchases.

(3) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support of mental healthcare reform, including adequate funding and improved care.

(4) Recognizing the sanctity of life, we urge the support of programs and policies discouraging our culture’s glorification of violence.

And be it further resolved that the 176th Convention of the Diocese of Louisiana encourages all members of the diocese to work within our congregations through prayer, preaching, education, and advocacy, toward eliminating all violence that kills so many of God’s children in our nation.

Thanks to Ormonde at Facebook for the link to the text of the resolution.

"RACIAL ENTITLEMENT" TO VOTE?

Don't be fooled by the smile and benign expression on his face.

Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes. I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any Senator to vote against continuation of this act. And I am fairly confident it will be reenacted in perpetuity unless — unless a court can say it does not comport with the Constitution. You have to show, when you are treating different States differently, that there’s a good reason for it.

That’s the — that’s the concern that those of us who — who have some questions about this statute have. It’s — it’s a concern that this is not the kind of a question you can leave to Congress. There are certain districts in the House that are black districts by law just about now. And even the Virginia Senators, they have no interest in voting against this. The State government is not their government, and they are going to lose — they are going to lose votes if they do not reenact the Voting Rights Act.

Above is Justice Antonin Scalia's response to arguments in a case before the Supreme Court brought by Shelby County, Alabama, to dilute the Voting Rights Acts.  How is the right to vote an entitlement?  There's a history here that Scalia seems to have forgotten.  Perhaps consideration might be given to strengthening the Voting Rights Act to include the entire country, as we heard many stories of attempts at voter suppression in areas outside the South during the recent election.  Reducing the number of days for early voting, which results in long lines, 6 to 8 hours in some precincts, amounts to voter suppression.

Despite the low esteem with which Congress is regarded today, and despite Scalia's words to the contrary, it's still the duty of the legislative branch to pass laws in the country.

Anyway, I'll let Rachel Maddow on the Jon Stewart show have the last word on Scalia.



UPDATE: See Tom Toles' cartoon.

CUSTOMER SERVICE IN JAPAN

A little startling at first, but truly excellent customer service.

WHERE AM I?

You ask where have I been.  I'm right here.  In truth, no one asked where I've been.  Sniff, sniff...  I've spent the better part of the day trying to get virus protection downloaded onto my laptop.  (I know.  Buy a Mac, and I won't have to worry about virus protection.  I wanted that out of the way, before someone else says it.)  I'm not looking to buy a computer now. 

My laptop was freezing up, as I said earlier, and, as best as I and my helper could figure out, the culprit seemed to be my anti-virus program.  When I uninstalled the program, my laptop started working again. I didn't like the program anyway, so I decided to try the program I use on the desktop.  In fact, I tried to use the CD from which I downloaded the program to my desktop, but alas - the program was for one computer only, which may have complicated the subsequent attempt to download the anti-virus program to my laptop properly.  After a series of failures and frustrating phone calls with customer service, my efforts finally succeeded, and now all is well, after hours of effort.  Sooo...that's how I spent my morning and part of the afternoon.  What a fun day!

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

The Tyler Morning Telegraph has learned that a Van Independent School District employee accidentally was shot during a district-sponsored concealed handgun license class on Wednesday.

The class was part of an effort to permit teachers to carry firearms on VISD campuses.

....

[School board member Leslie] Goode would not disclose the identity of the employee or the nature of the injury, but did say the accident would not change his mind about a recent decision by the board to arm some teachers.

Thank heaven the person was not killed or badly wounded.  Sadly, I fear this is not the last of this kind of story we are likely to hear as the push for guns in schools continues.

Image from Wikipedia.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAUL KRUGMAN!

Paul is my favorite economist. I read his posts at his blog "The Conscience of a Liberal" every day.   He writes about economics in a way that folks like me, who are mostly unschooled in economics, can understand.  Along with his capacious knowledge of economics, Paul exhibits a great deal of plain old common sense, which I find quite appealing.  Oh, and he also won the Nobel Prize in Economics in  2008.  Before the day is over, I'll raise a glass to Paul's having many more happy birthdays, and I look forward to reading his wise posts, interspersed with humor, for a long time in the future.  And that's not to mention his Friday night musical offerings.

H/T to Bill in Portland Maine for the reminder and to my friend Paul (A.) for the link.

"CAT VS DOG - A TRICK CONTEST"

What a delightful video.  I'd say Kaiser, the cat, wins because cats are much harder to train.  Border Collies are intelligent and eager to learn.

I love the Bengal cat, which are rarities around here.  I've never seen one.  Of course, I love Nana, the Border Collie, too.

The owner and trainer of Kaiser and Nana says, "I do all of my animal training using positive reinforcement and clicker training."

YES, IT MATTERS WHERE THE PRICE TAG GOES

 

FEAST OF GEORGE HERBERT - PRIEST AND POET

A Wreath

A wreathed garland of deserved praise,
Of praise deserved, unto thee I give,
I give to thee, who knowest all my wayes,
My crooked winding wayes, wherein I live,
Wherein I die, not live: for life is straight,
Straight as a line, and ever tends to thee,
To thee, who art more farre above deceit,
Then deceit seems above simplicitie.
Give me simplicitie, that I may live,
So live and like, that I may know thy wayes,
Know them and practise them: then shall I give
For this poore wreath, give thee a crown of praise.

 (George Herbert)

HAGEL CONFIRMED AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

Former Senator Chuck Hagel was finally confirmed as Secretary of Defense, after his confirmation was stalled in the Senate by members of the GOP.  Senate Republicans view Hagel as a traitor to the party ever since he turned against the Iraq war and Bush's conduct of the war when he was in the Senate, which gave them reason enough to oppose his nomination.  Only four Republicans voted to confirm.

Back in late 2011, Senator Lindsey Graham, one of  the most vehement opponents of Hagel's confirmation, suggested the US might have to go to war with Pakistan.

From the AP:

A Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Sunday that the U.S. should consider military action against Pakistan if it continues to support terrorist attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

"The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease, Sen. Lindsey Graham told "Fox News Sunday."

He said if experts decided that the U.S. needs to "elevate its response," he was confident there would be strong bipartisan support in Congress for such action.

From Juan Cole:

The GOP Orcs have a further list of countries they’d like to invade and occupy. Senator Lindsey Graham added Pakistan to the list. Does anybody else in the known universe think it is a good idea for the US abruptly to go to war with the world’s sixth-largest country, which is a nuclear power, and which is backed by China? I mean, shouldn’t this man just be declared clinically insane and mercifully put in an institution instead of being allowed to strut the halls of power?

I burst out laughing at Juan Cole's comments about Lindsey Graham's suggestion that we may have to go to war against Pakistan. Then I caught myself and realized that it's not funny at all that people like Graham and others in the Senate, who must always have a war going, operate in the highest halls of power in our country.  We can only hope that the "strong bipartisan support" in Congress for a war with Pakistan has evaporated, if it was ever present.